7 Year Space Between Kids!? Here's Why? (Miranda's Story)

Hi everyone, it’s Miranda. If you’ve been following Thrifty Nifty Mommy for a few years, you’ve gotten to know my family a bit. One of my very first posts is from back in 2017 where I shared some fun Paw Patrol Activities and here’s a photo from that summer so you can see how little everyone was back then!

So as you can see, we currently have five kiddos. They currently range in ages from (almost) 7 all the way to our oldest who is 16. But we’ve got another on the way! Check out my reveal post to learn more and Janessa just made a special announcement too!

A Little Family Background

We live on our family dairy farm in Minnesota where we milk about 100 cows in a swing 12 parlor that we put in a couple years ago.

Growing up, I’ve always wanted a big family. When asked, I’d say we’d have a dozen kids. As a teenager, I would turn down going to friends’ houses or out to the movies for a chance to babysit. The week after I graduated hight school, I started my own in-home daycare so I could spend my days caring for children. Mike and I married when I was just 20 and had Hannah, our first child, when I was just 22.

Not As Planned

Unfortunately, Hannah’s birth didn’t go as planned. My water broke early one morning and I went through 12 hours of labor, then 3 hours of pushing, all to end with a c-section delivery because she just wasn’t coming down. I was thrilled with our new, healthy baby girl but sad I didn’t have a great birth experience.

Baby #2 – A VBAC That Didn’t Go Well

I wasn’t giving up yet so when baby #2 was coming, I was set on a VBAC. Sadly, that didn’t go as planned either. Labor went well but then I pushed for 3 hours (again). They used the vacuum to get Jack to crown but after it came off for the 3rd time, they said they couldn’t use it any more as the incidence of brain damage are too high with more use. So I was able to push his head out but then he got stuck. (Shoulder dystocia.) After several minutes, they were able to get all 9 pounds 2 ounces of him out but both of us were in bad shape. He wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a heartbeat and my numbers were all over the chart and they were worried about losing me too.

They did CPR on Jack for a few minutes and got him going but thought he may have had a stroke and some other issues from delivery. He was making a continual moaning noise and wouldn’t move one side of his body. They ended up taking him by ambulance to another hospital with a NICU and because of the shape I was in, I wasn’t allowed to go with. It was about 11:30pm at this time and our current pastor woke up the entire church to pray. As he finished making his very last phone call around midnight, the NICU team was hooking Jack up to a bunch of machines and he ‘snapped out of it’. The NICU nurse was so amazed that she called me personally shortly after to let me know my baby was going to be okay! When I was discharged a couple days later and leaving down the hallway with baby in arm, the doctor stopped me and said there was no medical reason I was leaving with any baby, much less one who was perfectly healthy.

baby in the sun — Jack at 4 days old. He was slightly jaundice so we were giving him a few minutes of straight sun per day.

Babies #3, #4, & #5

Because of the rough VBAC, we were back to c-sections. With baby #3, my water broke 22 days before his due date. He was my smallest baby at 6 pounds 6 ounces. Getting prepped for surgery while in labor (again) wasn’t much fun but he arrived safe and healthy with no major scares.

Another Birth Scare

With baby #4, I began having contractions 9 days before my due date. I finally woke my husband up around 3am because I was convinced it was ‘real’. When we got to the hospital, I again had to deal with labor while getting prepped for surgery. Not to mention, it turned out that I was also dilated to 10cm too so I was also feeling pressure and the urge to push. During his delivery, we also had another scare.

The doctor assumes that some amniotic fluid got into my lungs because of what happened next. In the moment, I honestly felt like I was dying. Mike was over by the baby and he said the room got pin-drop quiet. He looked up and everyone was staring at me looking worried. He came over and asked if I was okay. Because I didn’t want to tell him I thought I was dying, I said I was just going to close my eyes and take a little nap. In the end, I recovered miraculously in an instant. When the doctor visited us in the recovery room and we asked what happened, he gave us his thoughts but said that people don’t just usually ‘snap out of it’ like I did and typically have months of recovery. So we had experienced another miracle and had a new precious baby boy to celebrate too.

What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About C-Sections

Baby #5 is our little Lucy. She is the only planned c-section where I wasn’t in labor. HALLELUJAH! Her delivery and our recovery went amazing. It was definitely my best birth yet. However, with that said, the doctor said my uterus was getting thin and he highly suggested we consider not having any more children. Although sad at the prospect, we decided to take his advice for the time being and prevent another pregnancy.

7 Year Space Between Kids – Baby #6 On The Way

Over the next few years, I thought I’d be okay with just five kids. Don’t get me wrong, I would have been. Yet, I just had this feeling like someone was missing.

So I began to pray that God would either take away my desire to have more children or that he’d have Mike come to me and say “I think we should try for another baby.” I prayed that he would say those exact words so I’d know for sure. Mike and I would talk from time to time about having another but it always ended up with me saying the final decision was up to him and he’d end up saying he didn’t want to lose me so we’d better not.

Well, last year, he said ‘I think we should stop preventing another pregnancy.’ Not quite what I’d been praying but I agreed. We did get pregnant but lost the baby at 5 weeks through miscarriage in October.

This April, we were talking about the kids and life one evening and Mike turned to me and said, “I think we should try for another baby.” Well, I just about lost it as those were the words I’d prayed God would have him say if we should have another. The rest is history as we got pregnant right away!

So Now, The Big Question Is: ‘Will It Be A Boy Or A Girl!?’

Because this will be my 5th c-section, my doctor is referring me down to do a level 2 ultrasound to check things over in-depth. Well, at my 18 week doctor’s appointment, they put in the referral but can’t get me in till the end of the September! For months, I’d been telling the kids we’d be finding out the gender around 20 weeks and having to wait an extra three weeks felt like torture. So I started doing some research and found out I could do an elective ultrasound at BeforeBirth4DImaging.com! Deb offers sneak peaks, gender reveals, 3d ultrasounds, 4d ultrasounds, videos, heartbeat bears, and more!

Stay tuned as my next post will share more about our Before Birth 4d Imaging experience as well as share what whether we will be having a boy or girl!?